Florida's abortion amendment fails, leaving 6-week ban in place

Florida’s abortion-rights ballot initiative fell short of passing on Tuesday, leaving in place a six-week abortion ban that has helped restrict access across almost all of the Southern U.S.

The measure’s defeat is a significant victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who engaged multiple levers of state-sponsored power to oppose it.

The measure needed a 60 percent supermajority to pass, the highest threshold in the country. No abortion measure to date has passed with 60 percent of the vote.

Florida was one of 10 states voting on abortion-related ballot measures Tuesday. All the others needed a simple majority to pass.

The state previously had a 15-week ban, but the six-week ban took effect in May. Florida’s ban has effectively shut off abortion access in the South, where neighboring states already enforce near-total abortion bans or severe restrictions.

Abortion-rights advocates were hoping to change that and spent nearly $100 million on the effort.

The amendment would have enshrined protections for abortion up to the point of fetal viability (about 24 weeks) into the state constitution, preventing the state from passing laws to “prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion" until that point.

Prior to this year, abortion ballot measures have won in every state that has voted on them since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. But the DeSantis administration worked hard to overcome that trend.

Earlier this year, the state attorney general tried to stop the measure from qualifying for the ballot. Florida requires ballot measures to undergo a review by the state Supreme Court, and Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) unsuccessfully argued the language was misleading.

This summer, a Republican-controlled state panel added what supporters said was a misleading financial statement beneath the question, stating that the amendment could cost the state money because of lawsuits.

In September, the state agency in charge of running Florida’s Medicaid program launched a website attacking the amendment. At least three public agencies have aired television and radio ads against the measure.

The state Department of Health threatened local television stations that had run an ad supporting the amendment, and a state election police unit visited residents’ homes as part of a fraud investigation into the signature-gathering process months after the measure was certified with almost 1 million verified signatures.